Mme Greluche: Oh Gustave, qu’elle est bonne! une vraie chaleur d’amour ! regarde-le notre fils Loulou ; la jolie petite figure qu’il fait !..- Mr. Greluche : Et Pyrame ! il a une peur....de Chien ! Si tu savais ce qu’il fait le petit capon !

Trustman, Benjamin A., Trustman, Julia M. · 1839

A family is having a bath in the Seine. Numerous art historians have been wondering why in many cases Daumier depicted the women and children in his drawings and lithographs in a rather unsightly fashion. Especially in the series “Les Baigneuses” the women’s figures shown in swimming gear are presented in a strikingly unbecoming way. Fosca (see bibliography) feels that Daumier’s women are being “virilized” by the artist, a suggestion which possibly opens up new speculations for the disciples of Sigmund Freud assuming that a lack of sensitiveness on Daumier’s part would still be the most accommodating of explanations. Le Foyer (Daumier au Palais de Justice, p. 43) on the other hand feels that Daumier had been thrilled and attracted by "ugliness", which he proposes as an explanation for a certain “bitterness” emanating from Daumier’s drawings.